How do we use the Past Continuous Tense?

The Past Continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at that moment. For example, yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.

At 8pm yesterday, I was watching TV.

past

present

future

8pm

At 8pm, I was in the middle of watching TV.

When we use the Past Continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

We often use the Past Continuous tense to "set the scene" in stories. We use it to describe the background situation at the moment when the action begins. Often, the story starts with the Past Continuous tense and then moves into the Past Simple tense. Here is an example:

"James Bond was driving through town. It was raining. The wind was blowing hard. Nobody was walking in the streets. Suddenly, Bond saw the killer in a telephone box..."

Past Continuous + Past Simple

We often use the Past Continuous tense with the Past Simple tense. We use the Past Continuous to express a long action. And we use the Past Simple to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas with when or while.

In the following example, we have two actions:

long action (watching TV), expressed with Past Continuous

short action (telephoned), expressed with Past Simple

past

present

future

long action:I was watching TV from 7pm to 9pm.

8pm

short action:
You phoned at 8pm.

We can join these two actions with when:

I was watching TV when you telephoned.

Notice that "when you telephoned" is also a way of defining the time (8pm).

We use:

when + short action (Past Simple)

while + long action (Past Continuous)

There are four basic combinations:

I was walking past the car

when

it exploded.

When

the car exploded

I was walking past it.

The car exploded

while

I was walking past it.

While

I was walking past the car

it exploded.

Notice that the long action and short action are relative.

"Watching TV" took two hours. "Telephoned" took a few seconds.

"Walking past the car" took a few seconds. "Exploded" took milliseconds.